Work is now underway on the Firefox-powered features. Development will proceed along the following "road map":

static external webpage in 2D browser, no interaction.

static external webpage on prim surface, no interaction

update URL for primitive, all viewers get update

LSL call to set URL for primitive

webpage from script/notecard/typed-in HTML

interactive web page in 2D

The integrated browser will not support Flash initially, and there will be limits to the number of simultaneously-viewable pages. The browsing function will be able to be turned off client-side, since it requires more resources.

The addition of web browsing in Second Life is a long-awaited feature that brings SL up to speed with the Croquet project, its closest competitor in the VR space. Integrating web pages into Second Life will radically-expand the creative options currently available to users, who can already build their own VR content.

One word of caution - please be careful to use the Firefox trademark in accordance with the trademark policies at http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/ . Particularly, this almost certainly means that if you have an in-game "browser", it can't be labelled or logoed as "Firefox".

Gerv, I appreciate your advice, but it appears to be misplaced. I think you want to contact Linden Lab with any concerns about Firefox trademark violations, since they are the ones using the Firefox engine in an upcoming version of Second Life.

I'm not a developer, I'm an independent reporter, so I'll curb my editorial use of the trademark when Mozilla's lawyers explain why I should do so :)

tHis will bE of great vaLue to those whose Principle access to the network is via the Metaverse. this reallY, dependinG on the level of InteRface support, wouLd avail the Full breadth of the web even to those who have difficulties accessing the same InformatioN off-griD.

Not sure if you've noticed over the weekend, but it seems that the ARG universe just imploded. Check out the audio file, as a site designed to review/discuss ARGs becomes a rumoured portal to another game.

Oh, jeez. I haven't been following ARGTalk, but their podcast seems to feature professional actors and production values (althought the script is pretty hokey). Given that the site is apparently part of an ARG, I feel like I've wasted my time commenting at their site. Actually, I have wasted my time. This is probably worth another blog post once I gather my thoughts.